Blogging to Fame!

Why do people blog? To share, to experience, to generate ideas.

Blogging starts with a conversation with its readers and ends with it. Business Blogging is when these expressions and relations take a more a serious turn. Where your readers are also your prospects, and your relationship with them is more than that of a friend. You are their guide, and their adviser.

At Better Business Blog Mark talks about making connections. He says

"[…] with business blogs, we need to go further.

Meaningful dialogue on a business blog, I believe, is different. It is about taking that one step extra. It's still built on the basis that people prefer to do business with people they like and trust, but surely that means going above and beyond a simple conversation. In business, it's only when these conversations lead somewhere that they become truly useful in commercial terms. For me, that is about creating connections.[…]"

Mark justifies…

"[…]a connection is when communication on business blogs makes an impact or really strikes a chord with those reading them. The type of connection when something "clicks" as you talk with someone … at whatever level. Ideas, commitment, personality, integrity, presentation perhaps. It's the type of link up which actually signifies something because of the mutual interest it creates. It's this which indicates an intention to make contact with that person again rather than a conversational exchange and then a parting of ways[…]"

Conversations in business are as important as otherwise. Conversation is exchange of thoughts, ideas, opinions and feelings, and that is the essence of blogging. Business Blogging should make more sense and provide more value. So in short, business blogging cannot be restricted to creating impact, but a much better platform to get inputs from your client side.

Blogging is not to create impact what used to be done with conventional websites and also what our ads are doing from ages. Blogs provide a unique platform to get connect and understand your market. A post in your business blog would help your market know your company and you more closely, help you convey something to them.

I understand that most of the companies are still trying to use internet effectively, and using Blogosphere is still far from it. One thing should be taken very seriously at-least for blog-o-sphere. No one can push things here. It won't take them far. So Business blogging should focus involving and making connection by bringing more people into your conversation circle.

As far as connections are concerned, only a meaningful conversation, can take you to the level. Things only click when one is able to convey right and useful information across in a business. I consider conversations and connections to be two stations to a destination called business. Where every connection can only be reached when it is started with a proper level of conversation. All the description that Mark made would be an en route from Conversation and Connection.

Where business blogging is concerned, blogs speak for themselves. They provide information and maintain customer relations. Business Blogging is in its nascent stage. Blogging was involved into the business scenario to build relationships with customers and prospects. By providing and assisting him and communicating with them.

Successful connections automatically takes place after one is able to create a helpful communication. Where you have to leave an impact on your reader and touching him on strings important to him, or as Mark said striking the right Chord, call conversation as a medium of attaining end result called Connection.

Understand your market, do a little research. It would be easy to find the problems your clients are going through. Give them the kind of solutions they are looking for. Develop a relationship with your readers. The trust and belief you will build through such an conversation, they would love to be customers. Remember as per P.T. Barnum, "A customer is Born every minute", you just have to convey it to him.

Divya Uttam

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Labels: Business Blogging

Now that’s a post everybody is waiting for. I have two questions for you before you start reading.

Q1. Do you want to get noticed by an A-Lister? I know it is why you are spending your time to read about it, so that hardly is an question.

But then reply to this:-

Q2. Why do you want to be noticed by an A-List Blogger? Think Hard.

The answer would be one amongst the following, choose yours:-

1. To gain popularity because they have a voice and 1000s of visitors listen to it.
2. To funnel the traffic they are getting to your own blog, either to earn more revenue or increasing Feed Subscribers.
3. Get a link from their High Page blog or to increase your Google Juice..
4. To rub shoulders with the other famous bloggers.
5. To create awareness or gain attention to work or services
6. Creating a Buzz.
7. Becoming an A-List Blogger gradually.

You can also consider these to be the end results of getting noticed by an celebrity bloggers.

What Not to Do?

Forgetting about their business for getting Famous

People are often so passionate in getting noticed for their work and spend so much efforts running after being famous that they have no energies left for their actual work.

Linking A-List Bloggers just for the sake of Reciprocal Linking

Some bloggers are under impression that linking A-Listers might get them in notice and a link back. A-List Bloggers get 100 people linking to them on daily basis, which makes it practically impossible for them to go through each and every post which is written about them.

What Will actually get you Noted by an A-List Blogger?

What will bring you Real Fame?

I can answer that question in just two words- Your Business. But that won’t satisfy your reading urge neither my point. We have already talked a lot about being different, building relationship with others by commenting on their posts, being an expert in your niche, writing passionately and stuff. These are all very important but will it get you noticed by an A-Lister lets say after an year or two, because all of this is a long-term strategy and a continuous process. Another thing you can go for is Viral Marketing and Linkbaiting, where with a click of an idea you can have everybody talking about you. Remember our recent favorite 2000 bloggers project. It has done wonders, and that Z-List has increased everybody’s Technorati ranking. Yes, they created a Buzz in the blogosphere and gathered lots of fame for their inventors. As they say an Idea can make the difference.

There is another option though which may take lots of initial hard work, an innovative approach and a business strategy, but may prove worthy enough to let your generations may live on it. When you think about having your name mentioned in a 8 page rank blog, you are going the wrong way. Renowned entrepreneurs do not work for getting noticed but for the Success.

Have you heard about Go2Web2.0. You must have. The first review that Techcrunch did on it was on its launch in September 2006 and after they upgraded there was another. Why? Because Go2Web2.0 has an innovative and structured idea. They have an attractive product. They did not have to struggle for 2 years to get it done. They even have 2K+ subscribers in exactly one year of their blogspot blog.

My point is if you are the best in your business and have put thoughts into your product and marketing, if it helps others and is attractive enough, A-Listers would automatically love to talk about you. Even if you are a whole sole blogger, and do not own a company, another website or a product. This should not give you a reason to lack behind. Don’t forget the Z-list and 2000 bloggers project I mentioned above. They did not have a service, product or a company to support them, but they still got famous.

Get Thinking, be innovative and Break the Rules. Remember its only You who is stopping You. Get Aggressive.

Best of Luck,
Happy Blogging,
Divya Uttam.

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Labels: Blogging Fame, Blogging Strategies, Business Blogging

I want to make a point here, so do go through every word of this post.

There is a clause though, you’ll have to change, change the way you think. If you are going to read this post you have to be flexible enough to adapt to it to change the future of your blog, the way you look at your traffic. Renew your philosophical approach to change your relationship with your readers.

The traffic you receive may how minimal it would be, repeat visitors should form at least 50% of it. Let me repeat this more bluntly. You are actually loosing a lot if you do not have repeat visitors. Giving your visitors to turn into readers take great effort. Remember, what you have been told since childhood in one way or the other- Treat others like you want to be treated. Its about treating your visitors and giving them a reason to return.

People who come to you, and read your posts, see you and your company as advisors. Now you have to see yourself as trusted, respected and expert advisors. This means you can do nothing less than what an professional is supposed to do. Its your responsibility and obligation to counsel them about what’s best for them. You would never try to manipulate them to benefit you in return either by buying something from you, giving you monetary help or joining your community. Its when you lack the professionalism, these things come into play. You’ll always be aware of the fact that the more value you add, that is perceived by them the more success will it give you and making more of blogging sense.

Your Readers are not your Customers.

There is difference between customers and clients. Don’t let yourself believe the wrong thing. Customers are people who buy a commodity or service from you, but it is the client with whom you have a relationship, who is under your care and protection, who will look up to you for anything. These are your readers, your repeat visitors.

Internet is a place where you can portray yourself as giant as Coke Company and even your competition can do the same. If you understand your visitor and do not just try to make customers but clients, where your ultimate passion lies in your niche, and you provide the very best, the richest information which is more enjoyable, profitable, productive, a wholesome enriching experience, you are going to rule your Niche, because your competitors do not look in the same way. Its your own Attitude that matters.

You can put this as a long term strategy and among the best examples I could give you is SEOMoz.org and the amazing way they have developed business. Seomoz.org are among those blogs, who are able to build a successful business out of a blog, implementing not only linkbaiting but a system to get more repeat visitors.

Why did I ask you to change in the beginning? In a race where everybody is doing the same thing, its you who should draw a line and differentiate yourself, and only who are able to do this get as big as TechCrunch and SearchEngineWatch. The way to do this is change your attitude towards your visitors, and yourself. Start thinking about your relationship with them. Provide them with an experience of a life time. Your Time Starts now…

Happy Blogging,
Divya

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Labels: Better Blogging, Blogging Fame, Blogging Strategies, Blogging Tip/Tricks, Business Blogging

If you think you are putting in lots of efforts and yet lacking in the traffic, comments, links and appreciation you should have got, ThinK AgaiN.

I researched the net about Blogging Strategies, but all I got people writing about Blog being a marketing strategy for a company and why should small business invest time and money in blogging. Even I suggest that Blogs are the hospitality industry for the virtual world, but what if you already have a Blog and it isn’t working the way it should, the way you planned it would.

All through my Blogging era I realized people focus on following petty ways to grab any little part of fame and money they could. They focus on “Tactics” rather than “Strategies”. Such bloggers hardly get or attract any traffic and then they’ll all blame it onto the search engines. Business blogging was started to give an edge to your existing business but when your blog is pulling in all your energies and yet not yielding what it is supposed to, its time to reflect on your strategies.

The major difference between strategies and tactics is that the latter is time sensitive, and ultimately fail to leave a mark on your audience. Things like link exchange might work sometimes, or may seem to be working, but in the long run they are tremendous failures. Tactics may offer present relief but you will seem to be running behind everyone. You always have to put on your running shoes and design new roads everytime.

For a successful blog you’ll have to go beyond just reading and writing to collaborating and sharing. Create and provide audience. Have the power in your thoughts to make your visitors think.

I once read a story about a man who was in a parking lot of a mall where his car got blocked because of the heavy rush of visitors that day. Finding no one there he thought to help himself. The only way he could get his car was pushing at least one car out of the way, to make the space. So he started with a Black Civic just standing in front of his Nissan. He pushed and pushed for 5 minutes but it did not budge. Then he shifted his focus to the Cadillac standing next to it. With a similar experience he moved on to third, but in vain. In the meanwhile he saw a man with a lean body structure following his own example. He laughed in his thoughts imagining the man all exhausted. Half an hour later he had almost tried 6 cars but could not move a single one. He looked at that man. He was still pushing the same car he had started with. Minding his own work he tried another car. Not lucky again. Another 30 minutes passed by, and he had tried all the cars adjacent his Nissan, but of no use. Some moved a inch, some did not even bother to.

It was then he caught a glimpse of an empty spot. The man with his own car was missing. He had actually pushed away the same car he had started with.

I gave you the above example not to tell you about pushing the same technique, but knowing what is fruitful for your business. The successful man(let us call him so) knew that if would drain all his strength on that single car will get the desired results. It may had happened that car might have moved an inch. Then it would have been better to try another one. But that’s hardly a question. Its about knowing what is right for your business and then plan accordingly. Working Hard is one thing and working in the right direction is another. Putting in all your energies for each post, researching the net for similar information, taking out the best out of it and rest of efforts can go waste, if you do not funnel them properly according to a proper marketing strategy. The first man whose every bit of strength got drained but he could not achieve anything represents bloggers who try their hand on any tactics they come across without realizing the benefits or the lack of thereof.

I am going to start a series about how to plan your important blogging strategies. It would include:-

• How to determine what you should Blog about?
• How to get noticed in the blogosphere?
• How to get the A-List bloggers acknowledge you?
• How to dominate your niche completely?

I would suggest to subscribe the feeds so that it won’t be hard to follow up.

Till then,
Happy Blogging,
Divya Uttam.

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Labels: Better Blogging, Blogging Strategies, Business Blogging

Are you still searching for the reasons for marketing through blogs? Studies reveal that not only the blogs have mass appeal but they provide a powerful medium for marketers. Marketing is not about selling your products, its about spreading your idea to the people and making them glad that you did it. With amount of traffic received by the internet only a 3% of them can make you successful.

Internet is becoming a leading source of information, research and development and not to forget, revenue. Online Marketing and Advertising is taking up around 12-15% of the World’s budget. It is becoming popular on the basis of reduced sales force and can help local businesses to expand nationally as well as internationally. Your website/blog have equal opportunities to grow as business giants like Apple, Dell, and Coca Cola.

In today's market, there is a broad range of online marketing opportunities. Successful online marketing depends largely on your ability to identify those that provide the best opportunity to reach your target audience in a scalable and cost effective manner. Here comes the role of Business Blogs.

Why Business Blogs are a must for any Business Oriented Website

Business blogging gives you ever more opportunity than what Business Websites used to provide. It would be harder for the website to achieve the same objectives that a blog can. There is a reason for it.

Even if a Website is updated frequently, gets good quality incoming links, and is a very good resource of information, has search engines visiting it frequently and generates lots of traffic, it lacks behind in maintaining relationship with the customers and prospects, and it is hard for it to achieve constant feedback. This is where Blogs win.

With Business blogs it is easier to update and generate good links, which obviously means more Search engine visits and higher traffic. It also builds a rapport and keeps up a conversation with the readers and you will often find them retuning back to get more information and updates. Your fan following will eventually link to your blog for its tips. The good part is that you can integrate your business blog into your already existent business model i.e. is your site.

You can target those audiences through your business blog which otherwise you couldn’t through your website. Let your Blog generate traffic, leads and Search engine Optimization for you and your website handle the business. This is what we call an automated system. Making systems which work most effectively. It's depends on how good you integrate the system, which makes you enjoy blogging, and yes this can do wonders to your business.

Don’t Blog for traffic

Though an online marketing through blogs depends on the amount of the traffic it gets, but blogging solely for the reason would spoil the effort. I have been always telling you about the passion your blog should represent for the subject you are blogging about. This is because your reader will always be able to tell the difference. Your posts should serve your audience because many a times your blog will be the reason they are able to find you.

Difference between Marketing and Selling

Its kind of same as Hard-sell and Soft-Sell. You do not sell your product when you are Marketing, but create an image for you and your company, so that people buy form you.

You are not blogging to be a salesperson. This would beat the purpose of your business blog. Be an expert in your field and give useful advice to your visitors. You call help them buy but never sell to them. This may sound abstract but there is a subtle difference. “Hard-Sell” and “Upfront Selling” is strictly forbidden. Your blog is not a sales-letter. You sure can discuss what your product does and how other people benefited by using it, and you can also give tips about using it and different useful and less known ways of using it.

Don’t let your blog yell at the reader-“This is MY blog, I am selling MY product, Here”, this may make them leave and never return. Instead let the reader give your product a thought, and he should be tempted to buy it.

Points to Remember

1. Your Blog should have great content to help your readers.
2. Your Blog should tell the visitor about your expertise in that field
3. Put in that extra little effort to Optimize your blog, to pull in more traffic.
4. Market your product not sell it(worth a repetition).
5. Differentiate yourself from your competitors by adding that magical personal touch to your Blog.

Marketing through your blog will give a leverage to your existent business or will provide a way if you are a newbie. Create a buzz with your strategies and soon you will be able to see the results.

Till then,
Happy Blogging.
Divya Uttam

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Labels: Blogging Tip/Tricks, Business Blogging

One of the biggest myth people are told or made to believe is “Content is the Only King Online”. Well I agree its half truth. But by just putting content on to your website, will it start working? Do you suppose everybody on net has all the time to read what you have written? You might put in every bit of your knowledge and originality in your posts but would not be able to convert visitors to readers.

Some website owners and even bloggers do not bother to write on their own and would straight away copy A-list bloggers word by word. They just fall for so many means, developing all kind of content from crap to recycling of others information to the content of little use. Their content is meant for the search engines. As for my understanding of search engines, I can expect easily that if your content is not consumed or absorbed by the visitors, your staying up with search engine traffic would be doubtful. Sooner or later.

What is content?

Content can be text, pictures, and any thing, which can be consumed here on web by your visitor. Types of content in general:

Traditional Content- Content generated by media people, niche authority, and researches.

User driven Content or User-generated content- After all we are in web2.0 world it’s the user who drive content. When Ms Dewey search engine started it was not introduced with a big launch. People started talking about it in their blogs, forums and where ever they could, and made it popular. So it was the power of User driven content that made it in vogue. Pod casting, video casting and all the blogs suffice because it is user driven and easily consumable.

Usablitiy and Accessibility-

The old saying that customer is your God is the basic truth on Internet. Usability and accessibility is to be tightly focused and is key to the success for any blog or website. If my blog is about business blogging and I keep on telling you what it is all about, all the time, you would soon loose interest. You wont other times have the time to read every word I write even if it a treasure of knowledge.

Everybody is searching for something when he accidentally lands on your blog or site, through search engine result pages(SERPs). You would say blogs exist because of their content, I will say you are perfectly right, but how much your content is consumed depends upon its usability. The information you provide is apt, that is why you appear in SERPs, but will your visitor stay to read it and click on what you want him to click and get into your conversion funnel.

Learning from past

When we are pondering about the usability of the content, the first point to keep in mind is to make it accessible. It is very obvious you’re your content won’t be consumed till it is accessible. Generation of high quality content cannot be underestimated and becoming source of high quality would be always benefited. The point of concern is generally is traffic and on that targeted traffic, and creating more ways to get your content consumed.

Many content sites and blogs become an important hub by providing the quality content or even links from over the web through varied websites and blog by the power of syndication. This cannot be said to be very qualitative but many times the information/content is repackaged or scripted for better accessibility by the end viewer or to the consumer. It can even be seen in the growth of building quality directories (main reason why directories are rated so highly and this is why DMOZ is so highly rated.) People who are around here in web from time, do have an un-doubtful benefit of having quality content but even then they just have to make it more accessible in this era of content overload.

Infinite Content and Choice = Overwhelming confusion.

Work to remove these confusions by providing a clear picture of your business, creating as well providing more channels for accessibility to your content. You can get more qualified visitors and hence more targeted traffic to blog as well to your website. After making it accessible to the visitor you have to make it consumable, to convert him/her to your customer.

So how new startups can be benefited with and structure online presence.
It’s more than just important to have web presence. Its 2nd phase of Information revolution and establish business online is getting very essential.

Growing naturally and found in the appropriate places search engine develops more credibility for your website or blog and hence show you on more of their results. Search engines never reveal the vital information, and even keeps minute details of yours, you even might not be aware of it yourself. This makes us think more deeply on key issues of blog optimization like Link building or buying links from high Page Rank sites.

Still then who is the Real King as for now?

I would take that in next post. Few things for now-
Make your worth, Make your business Interesting, Make it viral (and it is only if your business is consumer benefit centered).

A word of caution: “If your Business model on web is boring and your website sucks, you are already out of business.”

For you success,
Divya Uttam,
Happy Blogging

Related Posts:-
Blog Optimization- For Everything you should be concerned about
Blog Optimization- Content and its Supremacy.
Optimizing Blog by Developing Keyword Relevance
Optimizing Blog by Developing Keyword Relevance-II


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